Chris Cooke (Christopher Dolphin), Captain, Sailing Yacht Mir, Director of Ocean Programs
Chris Cooke graduated from DHS in 2006 and from Fort Lewis College with a bachelor’s degree in Music Business in 2012. He has performed in most of the venues in Durango, on tour across the United States and recorded and produced albums as a keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter. In 2016 he performed at the infamous Whisky a Go-Go nightclub on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles opening up for the lead vocalist of the Grammy Award winning ensemble ‘Toto’.
In 2014 Chris joined Biosphere Foundation and Mir where he served as First Mate for four years helping to sail the ship on expeditions to: Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and many destinations in Indonesia including Raja Ampat.
In 2016 Chris pioneered an outreach program using music to engage and inspire youth in biosphere stewardship in Bali, Indonesia. The focus of the project centered around creating, organizing and managing the production of Biosphere Foundation’s Earth Day school events. These events culminated in the creation of two music videos that can be seen on YouTube: ‘Menjangan a music video’ and ‘Everyday ‘s an Earth Day’.
In 2020 Chris became captain of Mir and began a series of voyages through the Coral Triangle bringing education and sustainability to remote communities in the archipelago. Since he has become captain Chris has trained over 20 young interns how to become sailors and sea people, teaching them how to navigate the ship both day and night through Mir’s Semester at Sea program.
Before Mir’s Semester at Sea students raise anchor and sail out into the open ocean, they all get trained at the Biosphere Center in Bali in order to learn how to: transplant coral and make home gardens along with many other biosphere stewardship techniques so that when they arrive remote communities in the Coral Triangle, they can help these remote villages become more sustainable.
To learn more about Mir and Biosphere Foundation visit our Instagram page @ Mir.biosphere or our YouTube channel @ Mir.biosphere.
He will also have a show of his art for the month of October.
Biosphere Foundation
Our mission is to mitigate the effects of climate change through ecological restoration and inspire a Healthy Biosphere Movement to ensure the right for all people to have clean air, water and food.
We focus on contagious sustainability — the power of inspiring behavioral change through our beautiful, biodiverse demonstration gardens that are both underwater and on land.
Our team leads experiential learning programs that are applicable everywhere. Our programs train new practitioners about how to steward ecosystem health and biodiversity, reclaim water, recycle waste, restore soil health and grow food at home.
We are all about changing the way we perceive our relationship with the world and how we care for it – ‘biosphere love’ alive in every head, heart and action.